Wings of Tavea (Solus, #2)

by Devri Walls

[Angie]

I enjoyed Wings of Tavea more than the previous book. I had been worried about the Middle of a Trilogy Syndrome, but it only moderately had some of the symptoms. The main one that I can think of is that this book served as more of a set up for the last book rather than moving the plot significantly forward. Luckily, it wasn’t boring though!

We’re through the gate and out of Meros, into a land that is based entirely in magic. Here there are many more types of magical creatures, most of which are more dangerous than the last. There’s giant birds who feed on magic, so of course Kiora would make a delicious meal. Probably worse than those are the Illusionists. If you believe in the illusion they’re casting, the more solid and real it becomes, so if you think you’re really face-to-face with a dragon, you’re toast! Also over there, Shifters are slaves, which does not make dear Drustan happy, especially when he has to pose as one for his own safety. Needless to say, Kiora and Company have a lot more dangers to face than just Dralazar.

Speaking of Dralazer, he’s still just evil, with no real motivation other than power and being evil. He does some pretty despicable stuff this time around. He has Kiora’s sister on this side, and I just can’t believe how blind with hatred she is! I couldn’t feel sorry for her at all, despite how Dralazer treats her. In addition to him, we’re also introduced to the Shadow, which essentially ruins everything it touches and not it wants Kiora! This book truly takes the good versus evil battle one step forward.

One thing I was looking forward to more of was the romance. I can’t help it, I just love romance! In some ways there’s more of it, but also less of it in this book. Less because Kiora and Emane are separated for much of the book (I won’t spoil why), but more because there’s the introduction of a love triangle. I love love triangles when they’re done right, and not just thrown in for the sake of a love triangle. This one, I’m not too sure about. There’s no “OMG I love you, but I love him too!” from Kiora, it all kind of sneaks up on her. There’s also a new element of magic that gets introduced along with this budding relationship, which is quite interesting. I am curious to see where that goes, even though I don’t think the new guy stands a chance!

As for Kiora, I was hoping to see some growth in her. She was very boring and kind of annoying in the first book, and she still mostly is, but now she’s starting to realize that she needs to make tough choices. She makes her first kill rather early on in the book. Not that killing is good, but Kiora finally sees that taking one life to save thousands is probably the better road to take. It of course devastates her to do this, but she knows she’s the world’s last hope in the battle against evil.

So while I still had some problems with this book, I did enjoy it more than the first. It moved along at a nice pace, and the world building was also better this time. We learn about this new magical land full of awful creatures, and there’s some history lessons about the Creators which I found very interesting. Even though I predict a happy ending, I do wonder how Kiora and Company will get there, so bring on the final book!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.